Sustainabity

PORTLAND, Ore. - A possible ballot initiative that would tax cannabis has landed the support of one of Oregon's largest unions.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 555, has voted to endorse Initiative 9, known as the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, the Portland Business Journal reported.

The measure would tax and regulate cannabis for adults over the age of 21.

The union believes that regulating the growth and sale of cannabis would help kick start an agricultural hemp industry in Oregon.

"From retail to manufacturing to health care, we recognize that a vibrant hemp and cannabis industry in Oregon will create thousands of family-wage, sustainable jobs across the entire state," said union President Dan Clay in a statement.

The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act website touts the many applications of cannabis, from biofuel to consumer health products, and says that regulating its growth will not only create jobs, it will also help ensure that marijuana is only sold to adults for approved uses. Proponents say the tax would generate more than $140 million a year.

The Union Food and Commercial Workers Union has 19,000 members in Oregon and southwest Washington.

Sarah Lonsdale tests the latest 'eco’ products and sorts the fads from the finds. This week: refurbishing derelict homes

By Sarah Lonsdale, The Telegraph

It is a contemporary scandal of monstrous proportions. There are about two million families in this country who need homes but who are priced out of buying or renting because of a lack of supply. Yet there are thousands upon thousands of houses lying empty – nearly three quarters of a million in England alone.

In the Midlands, North East and North West, great swathes of perfectly sound Victorian terraces, in better condition than ones in Fulham or Putney that change hands for over £1m each, are standing derelict; boarded up, their roofs stripped of lead, the elements slowly doing their destructive work.

In the past few years, 16,000 period terraces have been bulldozed to the ground and only 3,000 new homes have been rebuilt to replace them. Thousands more stand empty: design classics with airy front rooms flooded with light from their bay windows and ingenious split-level floor planning going to dry rot and black mould.